ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

US, 2021, 88 minutes, Colour.

Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Thomas Coerquel, Indya Moore, Holland Rodan.

Directed by Adam Robitel.

Escape Room seems a modest enough title for a horror film. But: Tournament of Champions seems a bit much for this sequel.

In 2019, Escape Room was a box office success, especially with younger audiences who could identify, in age, with the central characters. The studios were very pleased with the success and the sequel was, more than perhaps, inevitable. And, in fact, it is something of a rerun of the original. Once again, there is the threatening anonymous company which makes these lethal puzzles and games. Once again, the survivors from the first film, Zoe and Ben (Taylor Russell and Logan Miller) become involved in the new set of rooms to be escape from. But, Zoe, mourning the death of Amanda in the first film, is intent this time to defeat the company, Minos.

Just in case the action of the first film was not in the forefront of our memories, this sequel opens with a slick trailer-like collage to remind us. Zoe is also seeing a psychiatrist who warns her that anything she observes can become a clue to her puzzle – but this still does not solve her problem, her fear of flying. So, she persuades Ben to drive to New York for the confrontation, the Tournament.

One has to say that the pacing of these films is sometimes breathtaking, fast, dramatic, jolting. This is especially the case when the trapped characters are desperately trying to work out where the clues are, what the clues are, what the clues mean, going to action in time before they are trapped, the eagerness to get to the next room where the potential entrapment opens all over again.

Zoe and Ben are tricked into chasing a purse-snatcher into the New York subway, knocking people out of the way, then trapped in a carriage. It becomes ominous. The random collection of characters in the carriage inevitably turn out to be past survivors of Minos games.

We don’t learn particularly much about the others, especially as it is a variation of “And then there were none…”. However, one of the older ones is of more interest, Nate (Thomas Coquerel) who turns out to be a priest who had participated in the game where, with fellow priests, their faith had been tested in their attempts to escape entrapment. He feels guilty as the sole survivor. And he will have the opportunity to atone for his behaviour, literally reaching out to save another.

What makes the film interesting is that there are four set pieces, escape rooms, to test ingenuity. There is the train carriage. There is a rather sophisticated room full of deadly traps, keys and locks. There is an artificial sequence by the sea, the background painted, a lighthouse, a shop, but the seashore quicksand. And, finally, a New York setting with acid rain.

There is a twist, actually several twists at the end, Amanda reappearing and explaining what has happened, Zoe being tested about her aims of confronting the company and the possibility of saving Ben.

And, of course, and ending with Zoe actually on a plane, but…

While geared for the younger demographic, older audiences, like this reviewer, will quite enjoy the Escape Room films, even if sometimes rather out of breath,

1. The popularity of the first film? The surviving characters? Sequel? The same pattern? Survivors and the challenge to survive or crush the company?
2. The concept of the escape room, the characters trapped, alert to the clues, testing the clues, escaping to the next test, some not surviving?
3. The recapitulation of the first film, setting the tone, Ben and his desperate nightmare contributing to the tone?
4. The focus on Zoe and Ben? In the first film? Surviving the escape room? The effect on Zoe, her fears, going to the counsellor, seeing everything as a clue, her fear of flight? Her determination to confront Minos? Driving with Ben? New York, the site for the company, abandoned, the person nature, the chase, his leading them to the underground, the carriage?
5. The ordinariness of the carriage, the desperation of the pursuit through the city, knocking people aside, into the carriage, the other characters?
6. The feeling of threat, the uncoupling of the cars, the alternate line, the crash? Trapped, the electricity? The man with his iPad, wanting to get home to his wife? Electrocuted, the first death?
7. The pace of the first test, the editing, frantic, the clues with the missing letters, tokens, the threats? Getting out? Then the elevated descending? The formal room? The first death
8. The characters, little background, Rachel and her being a survivor, Breanna? Nate, his story about being a priest, the testing of the five priests and seeing whether their faith could help them survive? His survival, alone, sense of guilt, drinking, in the carriage? His participation in the solutions?
9. The frantic pace in the room, finding the clues, the various keys, the various locks, the laser beams and lacerations, Nathan and his testing out the steps, the explosion, his collapse, Ben carrying him? The map of the steps, Zoe going through at the last minute?
10. The beach situation, reality, the painted backdrop, the manikins and the shell in the eye, the lighthouse, the stores? The quicksand? Rachel being drawn in, the anchor with the rope, Nathan going into rescue her, his self-sacrificing death? The alternate escapes, at the top of the tower with Zoe, the tunnel in the store? Ben, climbing the ladder, falling into the quicksand?
11. The underground, hearing the New York sounds, the manhole, the getting out, discovering the New York situation, the acid rain and the umbrella, the awning, Rachel’s reappearance, Breanna? The phone calls, the taxi, lacerations and death?
12. Zoe surviving, encountering Amanda, the memories of the past test, Amanda prisoner, the story of her daughter, the twist with Amanda falling but not dying, forced by the company to invent the games? The same pressure on Zoe, that she designed games, Ben in the outer tank, the water, rising, Zoe refusing, Amanda helping her? Setting the building on fire, rescuing Ben?
13. The police, the statements, everything seeming normal? The interviewer? Zoe, confident in the plane, in the aisle, seeing the therapist or not? The brilliant to a sequel?
14. Audiences enjoying identifying with the characters and the desperate situations?